Of Blood
by Netaria
Summary: Watanuki and Doumeki are sent to deal with a vampire, but things don't work quite to plan. DoumekiWatanuki 4 of 4 chapters uploaded.
1. Death : Shi

Author's Note: This was written for lunargeography over at livejournal, I'd also like to thank my excellent beta's snowaltz and lilhobbit. :D Rated mainly for blood and violence and some sexuality at the very end, just to be safe. I won't hold you up any more, please Crit harshly!

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Doumeki jumped forward to grab the vampire that had been causing trouble in the area recently when suddenly Watanuki pushed him aside. They landed together on the ground in a mess of limbs, but Watanuki got up surprisingly fast. The elder vampire whirled around to face them again from where he had missed in his lunge for Doumeki. It was old enough to have lost all it's hair and would never be able to pass off as a regular human even at night, for it's skin was bluish white and clammy and it's eyes were an unnatural reddish hue and even Doumeki could smell it. He couldn't imagine the stench Kimihiro was dealing with if he smelled the rotting _and_ whatever that "spirit stench" was that evil things carried.

The vampire had been consistently directing his efforts after the taller man the entire encounter. Which was rather a switch for them since usually ghosts and demons focused so acutely on Watanuki that the other man could act with impunity. This time though their adversary seemed to have it out for Doumeki. What they didn't realize was that for an elder vampire drinking the blood of an exorcist would infuse him with resistance to any type of magic used against him.

"Run! I'll keep him busy!"

"Idiot, no!"

They both dodged the vampire's next attack, but Doumeki didn't make it out of the way in time, earning a wicked set of scratches on his arm where the vampire had grabbed him and Watanuki had kicked it off. Watanuki gave him another shove, "I said to RUN you bastard!" The moonlight made the blood on Doumeki's arm appear black as it ran down to drip on the packed earth. They were in the middle of "their" park a place they found themselves frequently, even at night. As all three froze and watched the fat drop of blood absorb into the soil, Doumeki wondered again if there was something special about this place, but reality reasserted itself as the vampire made a strangled sound of wanton hunger at the sight of his blood.

As Watanuki interposed himself between the monster and it's quarry, Doumeki froze again, staring up at Watanuki in anger. "No! I won't let anything happen to you!" The promise had become familiar over the years and it brought a familiar clench to Watanuki's heart, but as usual he refused the feelings it stirred and glared daggers with their shared eye over his shoulder at Shizuka. The vampire sneered and actually laughed this time as it side stepped Watanuki with blinding speed and grabbed for Doumeki again.

"NO!" Watanuki threw himself at the monster this time, crying out, "I'm not the one in danger! Now RUN!"

It dawned on Doumeki that in this instance Watanuki might get himself killed trying to stop the vampire from killing him so he scrambled to his feet and bolted out of the clearing to the trees beyond. Once the archer was far enough he doubled back around to cautiously approach from a different direction.

Watanuki was out of breath, but now that Doumeki was gone he could think again. It had frightened him amazingly watching the beast go after Shizuka with such tenacity. He couldn't bear for anyone else to die trying to protect him, bad enough he'd lost half an eye for him. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if the fool died trying to protect him, especially from a monster that was after Shizuka and not himself. It was another feeling he didn't examine closely - even though the feeling of not wanting anyone else to die protecting him was familiar, fearing for the archer's life was new. Before this he had always been so resilient and calmly capable, the idea of him actually dying to save him had never seriously crossed his mind before.

Distracted by his thoughts, Watanuki just managed to dodge an attack by the now angry vampire, but that apparently had been exactly what it wanted him to do as it continued in it's inhuman gait in the direction Doumeki had run off in.

_No._

Panic gripped Watanuki as he dove after it, just managing to tackle it around the legs and bringing them both to the ground and winding him painfully on it's heels. The vampire reached down and grabbed him, snarling fiercely as it pulled him on top of it like a lover. Before he could even begin to struggle with it, it's teeth were embedded just below his left collarbone, drawing freshly oxygenated blood almost directly from his heart.

The scent of the cherry blossoms dying on the trees that was normally so sweet to him seemed grotesquely appropriate mixed with the acrid scent of his blood and the rotten stench of the once-human creature. Some morbid part of his mind examined the fact that they not only represented elegance, but death, the very transience that was inherent in all beauty.

His eyes widened and a strangled sob escaped him, it hurt so much, he could feel the physical sensation of the strain on his heart as he lost so much blood. It felt like it was going to implode; he just hoped that Shizuka had gone back to his home, he'd be safe on the temple grounds. Safe from this creature, from this pain, from his life being drained away...

Suddenly with an almost parental gentleness, the monster released him. It cradled his head as he went into convulsions, as his heart stopped completely, and his vision went black.

"You will draw him to me."


	2. Mourning : Kanashimu

Doumeki crept back up to the clearing in the park where they had been fighting the vampire by the light of the almost full moon and saw Kimihiro laying on his back, pale and not breathing, covered in blood. All thoughts and all pretences of stealth fled him as he rushed forward out of the covering of the cherry blossom trees to the smaller man.

He had picked up a sharp piece of wood on his way back through the trees and bushes and it was a good thing, as upon exposing his presence the vampire descended on him with it's inhuman speed. But even with his loss of 10 feet in his right eye he still had the quick vision and reflexes of an archer and these were augmented by his need to reach Kimihiro.

So, as the vampire grabbed for him he was prepared, and rammed the impromptu stake up under it's ribs. He didn't wait to watch it fall, he closed the remaining distance between him and his partner, his fear and anger mounting with each hastened footfall. Somehow he felt like he wasn't moving fast enough as the steps echoed out into the now empty and silent night.

Only the smell of the cherry blossoms assaulted him until he was close enough to Watanuki to smell the blood and his mind also served up the tidbit of knowledge regarding their association with death.

As he stared down at the seer he knew it was too late and despair filled him. There was a gaping hole in Watanuki's chest, right over his heart, his shirt torn away and the flesh shredded cruelly, a scattering of cherry blossoms had blown onto him and stuck in the blood. He'd have bled to death long before Doumeki had arrived. Even if he'd made it before Kimihiro's soul had passed on, he didn't have enough blood in his body to replace that.

Doumeki found tears trekking their way down his cheeks as he stared down at the frail and mutilated body of the man he loved, he reached out and lifted him into his arms and just cradled him to his chest. "What am I supposed to do now," he whispered hoarsely to his memories as the smells of the blood and the flowers assaulted his already reeling senses, "I can't stop loving you, I can't stop being yours..." He thought of all the times they had played or talked or just sat in this park and made a strangled little sound down in his throat. "I never told you..."

"Well, now's your chance." Watanuki's hand had caught his cheek and he stared at him unblinkingly despite Shizuka's tears falling onto Kimihiro's bloodless face, Doumeki tried to blink away the tears blurring his vision. Watanuki stared up into Shizuka's face, at his eyes filled with tears and the pained expression there, but most of his mind was focused on the rapid pulse pounding away so close. Part of him mourned what had slipped out of his fingers --he had been so worried about losing Shizuka, that he had never let him in, never accepted the feelings in his own heart.

Doumeki's breathless voice broke his reverie, "You're still alive, we'll get Yuuko, I'll give you my own blood if I have to, I won't let you die!" Watanuki smelled the sweet scent of the Uiro he had made earlier on the other man's breathe, the familiarity seemed incongruous to everything else.

Doumeki stood shakily, pulling Watanuki close, laying the man's head on his shoulder.

Try as he might Watanuki found he was losing the battle with his new self, but one question both parts of him wanted the answer for. "Do you mean that?" Watanuki's lips moved against the side of his throat as he spoke, distractingly.

Doumeki did notice there was something wrong with Watanuki's voice as he asked, he sounded carnal, hungry, but not weak as if he were dying. Still, Doumeki stopped and tried to look down into Kimihiro's eyes, his voice broke as he said, "Of course I would."

As soon as the words left his lips he felt an amazing pain from where Kimihiro's lips had been pressed, falling to his knees he was further startled that Kimihiro caught him up in his arms. Suddenly, he realized what had happened; he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment calling himself six kinds of fool. Then he felt his heart break as he grabbed Watanuki harshly and pushed him as hard as he could. His heart felt like it was bleeding out as he looked at Kimihiro, much the way it must have felt as the creature fed off him.

"You bastard, how could you do that?!" His voice rose, but when he looked down at the vampire, it's eyes were half crazed with hunger, he guessed it would have looked worse if he'd actually seen it when Watanuki had first awakened from his rebirth. But the idea that Kimihiro, even as a new vampire, would have just killed him, fed off him, left him for dead made something in him snap.

He lunged forward and punched the other man in the jaw, flinging him backwards, "Damn you, you fool! Why didn't you let me stay?" He leaped forward again, but instead of landing another blow he wrapped his hands around the vampire's throat and shook him, not in control of himself anymore.

"Why did you try to take that thing on by yourself? Look at you! Look at what it did to you! What you almost did to me!" He shook the other man like a rat, "Don't you even remember what we've been through? Didn't you ever realize what you mean to me!? Did I really have to spell it out for you!?"

Shizuka slumped to the ground letting his hands go slack on Kimihiro, they trailed down the miraculously sealed chest to his legs, which is where he leaned. "Could you really not tell?" His voice cracked and he sobbed aloud for the first time. Somewhere in all that rattling Watanuki Kimihiro had regained some of his senses, some of his self control over the newborn vampire's need to feed. It wasn't the surest thing though and had anyone other than Shizuka been in front of him he'd have thrown self control out the window and drained them dry, but because it was Shizuka, he felt his heart break some that it had come to this.

"I knew," he rasped out, but made no move to comfort the other man. Afraid that if he got any closer to the gaping wound he'd left in Shizuka's shoulder he wouldn't be able to stop himself from feeding again. "I knew." He laid a hand on the other boy's head and petted his hair. Doumeki turned his face upward to Kimihiro, eyes filled with shocked fear. Watanuki blanched at the distrusting, fearful look Shizuka was giving him. He tremored with remorse at seeing the strongest and most stalwart person he'd ever known feeling fear, that it was the person he loved and he was causing it made it worse. "I'm sorry, I-" He collapsed to his knees and was shocked anew at Shizuka as he grabbed his shoulders and held him steady, if at arms length.

Somehow, the other man was still worrying about _him_. "What's wrong, you're a vampire now, you're supposed to be powerful, right?" Real concern layered Doumeki's question, as well as, shock –he had honestly believed that Watanuki was fine, if one of the living dead.

"The other, he drank all my blood to kill me, to make me...I'm empty." -Except for the little taste I had of you- hung in the air between them, palpable and ringing.

Doumeki made a quick decision from his gut, as usual. "Then drink from me, I'll-"

"No! I-I'll kill you! I won't be able to stop. You saw what I'm like now!" Watanuki pulled back lifting an arm feebly between them to ward the other man off, as he fell to the side.

"Can't you feed from my wrist?" Doumeki simply was not willing to let him die, not again, not ever again. Without waiting for an answer he scooted around behind the other man and laid his head in his lap, he brought his wrist to Kimihiro's lips. Kimihiro moaned softly and bit harshly, desperately into the delicate flesh, though not ruinously so; somewhere inside he kept himself in check. When Doumeki started to feel weak he eased his arm away with the last of his energy and fell backwards, but didn't hit the ground, --Watanuki had caught the unconscious man. 


	3. Journey : Tsurai Tabi

Author's Note: Sorry to anyone reading this as I upload it. Should just be a couple of minutes between each chapter showing up. :) Thanks for reading!

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Watanuki stared down into Shizuka's unconscious face, listening to his soft breathing. He would have to take him to Yuuko's right away.

He felt the same quiet determination fall over him that had the few other times Shizuka had ended up in trouble and he knew what to do…and didn't have to fight with Shizuka to do it. He found himself suddenly thankful for his partner's sleeping state, he wouldn't be forced to argue out every step of the way with him.

He touched his cheek lightly with a pale hand, his face was so gentle when he wasn't awake to glower at everything. "How much of that miserable expression you always wear is my fault? And do I even have the chance any more to make you smile? Or did I lose that?"

Gathering his partner closer he began the walk back to Yuuko's, somewhat thankful for his vampiric state as it allowed him to carry Doumeki effortlessly. Watanuki was overcome with protectiveness for Shizuka, "Even if you won't accept me this way, I'll watch over you. Keep you safe, always." A pause, "I won't let anything happen to you."

His senses weren't singing, they were screaming, it would have been overwhelming had he not had such a strong focus on Doumeki. He listened to the faint beating of his heart, monitoring it perversely the whole way, while ticking off all his regrets methodically.

Not that the list was really all that long and it was fairly centered on experiences he had missed with Shizuka. "I was such a fool, how could I really think either of us would be happy with the arrangement I'd created? I knew you'd wait forever, so I let you, I took your protection, your eye, your blood, but never your love. I never accepted the warmth you tried to offer me."

"And how can I expect you to accept this broken package now…? I know you saved me, but," he paused to look down at Shizuka again, "can I really expect you to still love me? I'm not even human anymore." As if to emphasize this point a fat red tear rolled off Watanuki's cheek and landed on Shizuka's face. He grimaced, kneeling quickly to wipe it off and refusing to look down again for the rest of the way.

When Watanuki arrived with Shizuka at Yuuko's she was waiting with Maru and Moro just over the threshold, her home and shop looming in the night behind her. He paused and leveled eyes with her. At some point on the way it had occurred to him that she had known, _must_ have known, for she always did. "Why didn't you do something to stop this? Why did you even send us in the first place? I could have gone alone! Or taken Magetsu or Mokona!"

She gave him back stare for stare, "It was Hitsuzen, it brought about occurrences that needed to happen. You should see this after the time you have spent here." An odd expression took over her face, one he had seen few times and didn't have the experience to describe, had he, he would have labeled it sisterly.

"Despite what you feel, good things for you both have happened tonight. -Your bonds have been strengthened yet again through the sharing of blood, as well as, feelings finally acknowledged, if not directly confessed. But now we need to bring Doumeki inside and tend to those wounds or all will be for naught, Watanuki."

"For naught." The children repeated gravely.

Watanuki carried him inside where the medical kit was already laid out and tended to Shizuka's wounds himself. Yuuko sat quietly near by, as if waiting for him to break the silence between them. Finally, he gave in, "We were both such fools." He laughed hollowly, "and now I'm this, I'll out live him...now every second with him seems that much more precious."

Yuuko nodded, "I can see how you would think that."

Something about the way she said it made him look up and stare blatantly into her eyes.

"You fed off only Doumeki's blood, did you not?" Watanuki nodded cautiously, "When the sun rises the last of the taint will be burned away if you meet the dawn's rays. You can thank him for it when he wakes up. Only such a large infusion of exorcist's blood would be able to do this and only for a neophyte who was empty of any other blood." Watanuki couldn't find his voice in the least; Yuuko smiled whimsically at him. "I told you it was Hitsuzen."

Watanuki's eyes filled with tears of blood as he leaned down and clasped Shizuka's hand, "Did you hear that? You saved me again." He almost kissed those still lips, but decided he would wait until after dawn, until he was human again and Shizuka was awake to kiss him back. He settled in to watch over his love, still holding his hand.

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At just before dawn Watanuki left Shizuka's side for the first time, his clothes in a neat pile by the futon. He stepped out onto the porch facing east, which just happened to be accessible directly from the room Yuuko had directed he put Shizuka into. --The woman was nothing if not absolutely prepared for everything.

As the sky began to lighten with pre-dawn, the soft yellow light was cold as the moonlight in it's way and he merely felt like his skin was crawling. That all changed as the sun broke on the horizon and it's direct peachy-gold rays sliced into him. Now it felt like he was burning from the inside out and there was the momentary fear that Yuuko had been wrong, that Shizuka would wake and he'd be nothing but a pile of ash. A strangled sound emerged from his throat as he squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated on standing. He had to believe and she had never been wrong before.

So, he stood until he collapsed to his knees and still he stayed in the light as the sun slipped up the sky, until he felt no pain from it's rays anymore. Then he finally let go and collapsed backwards unconscious as his heart spasmed back into motion.


	4. Feelings : Omoi

Author's Note: Thank you for reading my first fanfic! Please let me know what you thought!

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When Doumeki woke up to find Kimihiro curled around him his first instinct was to assume this was the dream. He looked down at the other man and murmured, "Am I dead?"

Yuuko who was sitting nearby on the porch watching the beautiful sunset with Mokona and sharing sake piped up. "I thought you two should sleep comfortably." Causing him to crane his neck backward to look at the group.

"Sleeping Comfy!! You two looked so comfy!!" Maru and Moro danced around on the porch, "sleeping so comfy after we arranged you!!" They ended the dance staring right at him with huge smiles in their typically matching yet contrasting outfits.

"You what!?" He stared at them all for a minute still not used to their antics as all the women and Mokona dissolved into giggles. "Hnn..."

"Uhhh..." Kimihiro stirred on his shoulder and reached out for his glasses. Shizuka reached behind him and snatched them off the tatami, handing them to him. Slipping them on the other man blinked owlishly at him as his eyes re-adjusted to the spectacles and being awake. Maru and Moro gathered up Yuuko and Mokona and their sake and the lot bustled off to somewhere else for their enjoyments.

"Shizuka?" Kimihiro's eyes welled with clear tears and he hit the other man on the chest feebly with his fist and yelled at him in rather typical Watanuki fashion, "Never listen to me again, okay!?" Then threw his arms around him.

Shizuka could barely answer as he realized that he could feel Kimihiro's heart pounding inside the bare chest that was pressed against his own.

"Kimihiro, you're alive? Alive, alive?" He put his hand to the side of Watanuki's face, turning it up to meet his eyes and gasped at the vibrancy of the colors there and the love spoken through them. "I don't want to waste any more of our time together, I won't wait for you anymore." Watanuki's eyes widened in shock and pain and Shizuka was forced to tighten his arms to keep Kimihiro from bolting. "I mean, I love you." As Kimihiro looked shocked anew, though this time pleasantly Shizuka stooped to capture his lips. Softly they kissed, slowly for only a few moments.

Then Kimihiro leaned back and looked up into his eyes, "I love you, too." He reached up and caressed the line of his partner's jaw, allowing his eyes to reflect the wonderment he felt at the smoothness of that flesh, of the shiver of excitement the touch brought to both of them. Doumeki's eyes fluttered slightly and he became suddenly very aware of the fact that Kimihiro was completely naked beneath the sheet covering them. But Kimihiro didn't give him time to concentrate on that in a manner that would have led to stallings and embarrassment. He continued the caress, lightly playing his fingertips over Shizuka's lips, then letting them trace the contour of his cheekbone up and over those fluttering eyelids, down the bridge of his nose and over his lips again. His other hand reaching out and starting the same considerations mapping out his neck and shoulder, so, so light over the shoulder where he was bandaged from earlier rough treatment at Kimihiro's own hands.

Shizuka moaned and slid down onto his back, letting Kimihiro explore him, discovering things he hadn't even known about himself. Wherever Kimihiro's fingers ran over him his skin felt like lightning was dancing over it. The electricity between them left his head dizzy, but still as Kimihiro slipped over him to kiss him on the mouth he raised a hand and lost it in his love's thick hair. Taking his mouth in a moment of desperate closeness that he quickly took in hand. He didn't want to rush this, he wanted to enjoy it, whether it came now or later, and he wanted Kimihiro to enjoy it. So he trailed his fingers down the back of the dual eyed man's neck as he disentangled them from his hair. Kimihiro arched like a cat being stroked, the thought making Doumeki smirk slightly as he took the caress all the way down his spine, just a little lower and then back around over Kimihiro's hips, tracing a curly-q over the bone there. Watanuki shivered and gasped and decided that while he definitely was enjoying this he wanted to turn the tables back to where they had been.

He slowly lowered his mouth to Shizuka's chest, so as not to startle him, and let his tongue play out over the smooth hard flesh. His hot tongue and saliva contrasting starkly with the cool night air coming in from the still open doors causing Shizuka to groan in pleasured shock. He continued down his stomach, tracing out each individual muscle on the abdomen, switching between finger tips and tongue as needed. Shizuka's hand was now on his shoulder needing at the muscles there and occasionally clawing at the skin, his other hand was tangled in Kimihiro's hair. He tried feebly to pull him back up, he wanted to take those lips again, roll on top of him and put him into fits that would make his daily freak outs look tame, but all his nerves were thrumming and he couldn't quite bring himself to make a decent effort to stop it. So when Kimihiro distractedly, but forcefully pinned his wrist to the matting he could only moan yet again.

It wasn't until he felt Kimihiro's tongue snake under the waist of his hakama and the hand pinning his wrist release him and start to untie them that he found the gumption to pull the other man back up to his lips, though Kimihiro didn't relinquish the high ground. Their lips met again and the hand wandering...and mouth wandering started again, anew...they had all night after all. They had the rest of their lives to spend at this, learning and inventing, what a wondrous thought. "Mmm..."


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